A Botanical Nightmare

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Botanical Nightmare
Forget The Little Shop of Horrors. Here's 5 classic tales of bloodsucking plants!

1881: “The Man-Eating Tree” (story) by Phil Robinson
1894: “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” (story) by H. G. Wells
1899: “The Purple Terror” (story) by Fred M. White
1915: “The Pavilion” (story) by E. Nesbit
1919: “The Sumach” (story) by Ulric Daubeny

Cover art by Allen Koszowski.

This is the first and only anthology of vampiric vegetation. I believe the only similarly themed anthology is Parry's 1976 Roots of Evil, but that book dealt with the broader theme of plants that figure in weird fiction and included only Wells' “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid”.

A Botanical Nightmare gathers stories stretching from 1891 to 1919 and hence does not fit neatly into the vampire tale chronology.

Mario Guslandi posted a nice review of the chapbook at infinitiplus.co.uk

And Still We Hunger for more classic vampire tales!

Classic Vampires Revisited: And Still We Hunger
Two great detectives match wits with the undead. Plus a story that had not been reprinted since its first appearance in Weird Tales.

Contents:
1922: “Blood-Lust” (story) by Dion Fortune
1922: “Negotium Perambulans” (story) by E. F. Benson
1924: “The Sussex Vampire” (story) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1925: “Four Wooden Stakes” (story) by Victor Rowan

Another incredible cover by Allen Koszowski.

A Fearful Feasting

Because I'm an animal lover, this remains one of my favorite covers. And because the photo captured the creature's great intelligence. Okay, okay, I did do something to the photo to "tweak" it.

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Fearful Feasting

Contents:

1914: “Dracula’s Guest” (story) by Bram Stoker
1914: “An Episode of Cathedral History” (story) by M. R. James
1914: “Aylmer Vance and the Vampire” (story) by Alice & Claude Askew
1920: “The Vampire” (story) by Jan Neruda

1922: “Mrs Amworth” (story) by E. F. Benson

A Harvest of Horror

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Harvest of Horror
features some of the greatest practitioners of the weird tale!

Contents:

1904: “Count Magnus” (story) by M. R. James
1905: “For the Blood is the Life” (story) by F. Marion Crawford
1909: “An Authenticated Vampire Story” (article) by Franz Hartmann
1910: “The Singular Death of Morton” (story) by Algernon Blackwood
1912: “The Transfer” (story) by Algernon Blackwood

1912: “The Room in the Tower” (story) by E. F. Benson

A Shocking Revelation

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Shocking Revelation

Contents:

1907: “The Feather Pillow” (story) by Horacio Quiroga
1907: “A Case of Alleged Vampirism” (story) by Luigi Capuana
1908: “The Blood Fetish” (story) by Morley Roberts 1909: “The Vampirine Fair” (written 1797-1801) (poem) by Thomas Hardy

Cover art by Dave Carson

Shocking, isn't it?

The House of the Vampire

George Sylvester Viereck's 1907 novel The House of the Vampire was the second book I published. This is a classic tale of a psychic vampire who preys on the New York literati.

The cover photo depicts a building in New York, circa 1907. Just the sort of "pad" where our villain would hang out.

In the Dwellings of the Wilderness

I searched for three years before finding a copy of the extremely rare 1904 novel In the Dwellings of the Wilderness by C. Bryson Taylor. Here it is, complete, reprinted in all its glory, etc., etc. A surprisingly good novel with some fine passages and several creepy scenes.

Allen Koszowski did the beautiful cover art.

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Ripening Evil

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Ripening Evil

Contents:
1900: “The Tomb of Sarah” (story) by F. G. Loring
1900: “Marsyas in Flanders” (story) by Vernon Lee
1900: “The Vampire Maid” (story) by Hume Nisbet
1902: “Luella Miller” (story) by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman

Cover art by Allen Koszowski. Allen signed all the copies of this book. It's the only one he's signed, so far. But that's only because I haven't got around to asking him to sign another. Soon, I promise.

A Consuming Passion

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Consuming Passion
1893: “The Last of the Vampires” (story) by Phil Robinson
1894: “The True Story of a Vampire” (story) by Count Stenbock
1896: “The Vampire of Croglin Grange” (story) by Augustus Hare

1896: “Good Lady Ducayne” (story) by Mary E. Braddon

Batman artist Andy Fish did this cover art for me. I have another piece he did for the series. I'm hoping to use it soon.

Another Phil Robinson story appears in Classic Vampires Revisited: A Botanical Nightmare, an all man-eating, bloodsucking plants volume in the series.

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Growing Fear

Classic Vampires Revisited: A Growing Fear

I loved being able to include Gilbert & Sullivan's contribution to the evolution of the Literary Vampire!

Contents:

1886: “The Vampyre” (poem) by Vasile Alecsandrai
1887: “A Mystery of the Campagna” (novella) by Anne Crawford
1887: “Ruddigore” (storyline) William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

Cover art by Allen Koszowski